why are you going? their main church in LA is the most over the top building i've ever seen in my life. there's also a dementedly huge mural advertising Dianetics down a street in NY that has to be seen to be believed.

I mean you are aware that Scientology is a cult designed to part you with your money as quickly as possible? And they believe shit like the human race descended from clams, amongst other total bullshit? L Ron Hubbard's most famous quote - "The quickest way to make a million is to start your own religion".

was in San Francisco (I think), and he saw a flyer advertising free psychometricy personality tests, so being a bit bored he thought "why not?" so went for this test and it turned out to be a big recruitement test for Scientology. All the results you'd get from the test would be negative and say your life was rubbish, then offer Scientology as an answer to your problems. They then made you watch a video and try and flog you books and stuff.

there personality test online. There were about 200 questions that did seem very vague. Turns out I'm depressed - well that is what the results said. I actually feel pretty good at the moment, this is because I am eating oatcakes and thinking about new jumpers to buy. True story.

there is of course a legitimate argument that scientology is no more ridiculous than any other religion. For any religion you could say that they are based on no hard facts and so this is the same. Of course the fact that it was written by a science fiction author makes you more likely to distrust it but that shouldnt be the only factor.

My real objection to scientology (and believe me I hate this cult) is not on their beliefs but on the way they carry them out. As people have said before they do their tests which come out with everyone feeling depressed and with the meters they say "think of something stressfull" then make the needle swing about. Of course if you think of something nice and nothing to do with stress it does exactly the same thing but they bank on you not doing that.

Furthermore there is of course the major issue of money. Whilst Christianity had its reformation and no longer states that you can buy your way into heaven this had never happened in scientology. In order to advance in it to "higher levels" you have to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to get onto their boat so they can read to you from a boat.

But most imporantly there are the cases of abuse and harrassment. A few points here. There is an official policy authorised by the Church of Scientology called Fair Game whereby any one that insults scientology is open to any form of attack a scientologist deems fair (sort of like their equivalent of a fatwa). Another thing is that it has a group called the Office of Special Affairs which is basically a bunch of spies that were part of the largest espionage operation in US history, that's right US HISTORY! Finally the biggun. Rehabilitation Project Force is a series of "retreats" the church runs which are no less than thought reform camps shut off from the outside world. Any scientologist that strays from the correct path is liable to be sent here and even if they arent they are open to physical abuse.

Whilst all religions have fanatic supporters who would happily kill someone who is anti their religion the difference with scientology is that this is practiced by the highest religious body itself. As such my beef isnt really with scientologists (I once saw a programme about reformed scientologists that actually seem quite nice) but rather with the Church of Scientology, an organisation that lies somewhere close to the medieval Vatican.